Musical.ly’s new owner decides to nix the name and migrate the app’s 100 million monthly active users to TikTok.

Musical.ly, the popular lip-sync video app, announced Wednesday (Aug. 1) that it will be absorbed into sister app TikTok, creating one global video platform. The merger comes after ByteDance, the Chinese media firm who also owns TikTok, acquired Musical.ly for around $1 billion last year.

Debuting a brand new logo and user interface, TikTok incorporates popular elements from both Musical.ly and TikTok, including the use of easy-to-use video capturing and editing tools to create compelling content. It will also have a “For You” feed that uniquely serves a curation of personalized video recommendations based on viewing preferences.

Cool new features also include a “reaction” feature that will allow users to react to friends’ videos directly from the phone, creative tools like interactive gesture filters and green-screen like background effects, the company said in a statement.

“Musical.ly recently reached a new milestone of 100 million monthly active users and we are excited to enter into a new chapter. TikTok, the sound of a ticking clock, represents the short nature of the video platform,” said Alex Zhu, co-founder of Musical.ly and SVP of TikTok. “We want to capture the world’s creativity and knowledge under this new name and remind everyone to treasure every precious life moment. Combining Musical.ly and TikTok is a natural fit given the shared mission of both experiences — to create a community where everyone can be a creator.”

Existing Musical.ly user accounts, content and followers will automatically move to the new TikTok app when users update the current app. TikTok users will now be able reach a bigger and more diverse global audience, the company added.


Source: Billboard